Page 109 of The High Island

‘I’ll stay a bit longer,’ he said. ‘Can I get you a coffee from the machine?’

She told him yes, then added, ‘If there’s a chocolate biscuit or a packet of crisps . . .’

He smiled. ‘I’ll raid the vending machine for you.’

Jo moved to take the seat by the bed, noting that the wound on Mackie’s head had been dressed and his breathing appeared steady.

‘Mackie.’ She spoke softly. ‘It’s me,DSJo Green. We’re working together on Ivor’s notebook.’ She waited a moment. ‘You called me, said there was something you needed to tell me about the three pages we’d still to translate.’

Even though there was no change in his face or breathing, she continued.

‘I was coming to see you at home, but something happened before I got there. Who was in the house, Mackie? Who hit you and took your phone?’

Was he stirring? She placed a hand on his chest, feeling thethump of his heart through the hospital gown, sensing it beat a little faster.

‘Can you hear me, Mackie? I’ve been reading the first of those pages in Ivor’s notebook. He was worried about Kris coming to Orkney. What the family might do to him. Did Ivor tell Kris to hide from them? Is that what’s in the notebook?’

Her hand still on his heart, she felt its beat more strongly now. And something else. His breathing seemed a little faster and his mouth was moving. Was he trying to tell her something?

Jo leaned forward, setting her ear close to his face. She could feel his soft breath brush her cheek, but there were no words in it, until—

A sudden movement of his mouth seemed to make a sound, which he repeated three times.

‘Kalfey?’ Jo said. ‘Is that someone’s name, Mackie? Is that the name of the person who was in your house?’

But he was slipping away again, the effort seemingly too much.

Jo turned to find Ethan in the doorway carrying two coffees, his pockets stuffed with what she took to be his raid on the vending machine.

‘Did he come to?’ he said, noting her expression.

‘I thought so. I felt he was trying to say something,’ she told him.

‘About who attacked him?’

‘Maybe.’ She accepted a coffee with one hand, a Tunnock’s caramel wafer and a bag of crisps with the other. ‘How did you know I liked caramel wafers?’ she said with a half-smile.

‘Who doesn’t?’ Ethan pulled over another chair and sat beside her. ‘So what did he say, exactly?’

‘I asked him who’d been in the house. Then I asked him about Kris and whether Ivor had told him to hide somewhere. That’swhen he seemed to be trying to say something. So I leaned closer and that’s when he said the word, three times.’

‘What word?’ Ethan said.

‘It sounded something likekalfey,’ she said.

‘Kalfey?’ he repeated and for a brief moment she thought he might have recognized the word, but then his expression went blank.

‘Is there a Mowat with a name like that?’ she said.

‘Not that I know of,’ Ethan told her.

‘Then maybe it’s a place name?’ Jo suggested.

‘Kalfey,’ Ethan said again. ‘If it’s a place round here, I don’t recognize it.’ He pulled out his phone to do a search. Then, ‘Kalfey, if that’s what Mackie said, means calf in Old Norse.’ He looked bemused. ‘Maybe you heard wrong or he was delirious?’

‘He seemed pretty determined,’ Jo said. ‘He repeated it three times. If he wasn’t referring to the person in the house, he might have been trying to tell us where Kris is.’

‘Kalfey means calf,’ Ethan repeated. ‘And in Orkney that’s the name given to a small neighbouring island. Like a cow and her calf.’ He stopped there, a surprised look on his face. ‘In fact, the name Cava means calf island.’